It really stinks to be sick. I don't mean the cold sick, but really sick. Like completely laid out dead to the world and you just don't care sick. I recently had a bout with the flu like I had not had in quite some time. At first I was like, "Oh this is like usual", I was home off from work and figured I would be better by the time I was to go back. Unfortunately that wasn't the case. Just when I thought I was getting better WHAM! I got hit hard again I think I had some coming out of every hole in my body. I had to goto the doctor and take 2 days off work hit the sack and focus on laying low and getting better. I really hated missing work, money and spending fun time with my family. After the medicine took hold and I got back to normal I was almost jumping for joy. It was so nice to be a part of the regular world.
I guess that's what was going through the lepers thoughts after he was healed. Being shoved out of the community being a leper, sick and alone it was a very hard life. And even though he was healed and told not to talk about it he did tell many about how Jesus healed him.
I have been taught many times that I am to do acts of kindness and not brag about them. I am merely to do them to help others in my mission to be a good christian and spread love through the world. I believe that is what Jesus was trying to do here. He had compassion for the leper and healed him out of love but did not want to draw attention of what he could do or how great he was.
I don't really blame the leper though. Could you blame him? Someone did something so wonderful him and he is to keep it quiet? I don't think that I could have either. Jesus liked to keep things low key. He knew what was going to come to him, it was inevitable, but he wanted to try and help as many as possible in the mean time.
So I walk through life trying to help others when I can. Not for recognition or fame's sake but for the sake of others. Following Jesus means that I am to love God with all my heart and all my soul and to love everyone else I meet and do whatever I can to help them. Am I perfect? No, but I am on a journey that keeps me more fulfilled than I have ever felt before. I will never be as righteous or good as Jesus but with his teachings I can be a better person and make the world a little better than when I found it.
Mark 1: 40 - 45
40 And a leper came to him beseeching him, and kneeling said to him, "If you will, you can make me clean."
41 Moved with pity, he stretched out his hand and touched him, and said to him, "I will; be clean."
42 And immediately the leprosy left him, and he was made clean.
43 And he sternly charged him, and sent him away at once,
44 and said to him, "See that you say nothing to any one; but go, show yourself to the priest, and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded, for a proof to the people."
45 But he went out and began to talk freely about it, and to spread the news, so that Jesus could no longer openly enter a town, but was out in the country; and people came to him from every quarter.
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